I have been an Amazon customer for many years and a Prime subscriber for over a year. Since November approximately 70% of my orders have not been delivered on time.

In the past 30 days I have placed about 70 (yes 70) orders from a battery to a £289 set of headphones, an external hard disc, camera etc etc. So I think I qualify as an expert in Amazon service.

Both last Saturday and this Saturday I waited in all day for Amazon parcels via Citylink but neither turned up. The one from last Saturday came on Thursday and this Saturdays is still missing together with 2 other items sent via Royal Mail 'guaranteed next '.

The main issue I have is no matter how many days you have to wait in they will only compensate by £5 and always as a gesture of good will. They do not seem to accept that under UK law they are responsible for late delivery and not the delivery agent.

Before Christmas out of 14 items in a particular batch I ordered from Amazon, 11 consecutive orders were late.

If you manage to get hold of a customer services agent in Ireland they are much more helpful than the ones in India. I don't know if they have more flexibility but the Indian ones seem to be stuck on their scripts.

I am very close to doing what I did with Ideal World and issue Small Claims proceedings. Perhaps it is time Amazon's claim they won't compensate for consequential loss be tested.